What people need to understand about the preliminary map is that, first, Austin has to be split into 10 districts with roughly 79,000 people.1,2,3, and 4 are minority districts required by law. Since Northwest and Far Northwest happen to fall neatly into two districts population-wise, NWACA and NWAC both requested using 183 as a possible dividing line for Northwest. District 6 and 10 reflect this request, although ICRC made a slight adjustment for population.Next is UT. A lot of people requested a UT-centric district:Here is the article from the Texan about district 9:

was to hook these neighborhoods (Scofield Farms, Scofield Ridge, Lamplight, Walnut Creek, Gracywoods, Quail Hollow, North Park Estates, Copperfield, Harris Branch and a few others) to the North Burnet/Gateway plan to the south and then to the North Central neighborhoods who had requested to remain together (North Shoal Creek, Brentwood, Crestview, Allandale). You can see this suggestion was accepted and creates the top 2/3 area of District 7.I really don't have an opinion of the map as it currently stands south of 45th Street. I feel that the districts as created north of 45th Street are a reasonable compromise considering the many constraints and requests that the ICRC had to consider.At National Night Out last night, I showed the preliminary map to about 30 neighbors and the general consensus was, while District 7 is very odd in neighborhood makeup (it pairs North East, North, and North Central neighborhoods up with Old West and Historic Austin), the actual rationale behind forming the district does make sense.Also, I checked and most of the neighborhoods in this district (this my best guess - I am sure I have missed some!!):Harris RidgeCopperfieldNorth Oaks HillsideWalnut RidgeCrossing at Parmer LaneWest View Canyon HOLamplight VillageCrossing at Parmer LaneKings VillageWoods of Century ParkLimestone at Walnut CreekScofield FarmsScofield RidgeTomanet EstatesLamplight VillageParmer Lane HieghtsVillage at Walnut Creek HOATanglewood EstatesRiver Oak Lake EstesNorth StarWalnut CreekGracywoodsGracy FarmsNorth Park EstatesChelsea Row HOAEnclave HOAReflections I HOAReflections II & III HOAGracy Meadows HOAQuail HollowNorth Shoal CreekAllandaleBrentwoodRosedaleBryker WoodsOakmont HeightsEnfield TarrytownOld Enfield HOAAs well as Substainable Neighborhoods (Burnet/North Central) and the West Austin Neighborhood Group (Enfield/Tarrytown), are facing the same three issues. Many of our neighborhoods were surburban/family residential when built and are now dealing with the by-products of Austin's rapid growth - transportation issues, density/infill, and a decreasing population of children.The biggest problem I see with this district are that we also have some very disparate needs that not all our neighborhoods share. Some of those needs are:-Parking issues because of events-Construction noise-Empty/undeveloped lots and land-lack of infrastructure on key corridors-lack of infrastructure for sewer/water-lack of park space/recreational facilities-lack of cross (East/West) routes-response times for emergency and police needs-issues/development of code for historic homes-lack of mixed transit and lack of future transit planning-development/future needs for high-density zoning areasOne other thing to consider is that because we passed Proposition 2, I believe only Chris Riley and Kathy Tovo can run again in the 2014 elections that will occur for all 10 districts (please fact check me). My understanding is that Tovo lives in District 7 and Riley lives in District 9 (again, please fact check me). So being in District 7 actually has an immediate political consequence for the neighborhoods in the district. I am not saying this is either a good or bad thing, it is just something else that neighborhoods in the proposed district should be aware of.

The map on the Daily Texas web site is too small for me to see where the districts are in relation to roads and other geographic features. Where can I see a larger map? Thanks.

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Lloyd Ewing

10/4/2013 09:37:03 pm

I am absolutely amazed that Mary would not have a strong opinion against having a district as lopsided and clearly gerrymandered as District 7 is on this map, especially since she lives in a neighborhood covered by that district.

Note, I finally found a map that was a little better here:
http://www.austinredistricting.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Preliminary-Map-with-Precincts4.pdf

In the first place, I do not believe that districts 1 through 4 are required by law to be exactly as they are drawn. There has to be room to make adjustments in the boundary lines without changing the protected status of minority voters.

If I understand this map correctly, the high voter turnout in the old west Austin area at the south half of district 7 would totally overwhelm the neighborhoods in the north part of the district. Those of us who live north would not have any significant affect on the election of the council member from district 7, and that council member would have no reason to pay any attention to the problems in north central Austin. That would guarantee the election of Tovo or someone like her who would work to continue the policies of the past that have led to the deterioration we see in north central Austin.

Could I be missing something? How could this turn out any other way if we were to have this map for district 7?

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Javier Bonafont

10/9/2013 05:01:35 am

I believe the problem with the current map is that the committee began drawing from edges toward the center, which is a common practice since the low density on the outside means you need huge tracks of land to get your numbers. However, as the "immovables" of the four opportunity districts are all on the east side, it would have made a lot more sense to move from east to west, which would have created a sensible north austin district and a sensible district 7 with the far west/northwest united as the 620/45N district. I have a proposed map i have shared with Mary that creates a District 6 north of 183 that runs basically from I-35 to about the williamson county line/McNeil.

Reply

Javier Bonafont

10/9/2013 05:09:11 am

I think any district that links north of 183 communities with Allandale and Crestview and any of those is doomed to be dominated by those areas. They are VERY active, very well connected, and vote like crazy. I really think we need keep this district north if we want the interests of the area represented and understood. I also think that the west of mopac communities of WX and Milwood are similar to Gracywoods and Quail Hollow and all those. Certainly more so than Tarrytown!

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Lloyd Ewing

10/10/2013 12:02:36 pm

Mary, would you please remove the many duplicate posts I made when the web site was not working? It kept giving error messages saying that posting the message had failed and then they all appeared at once.